head like
that!"

"I did it for you, Trev--for you. Don't you see? Oh, I despise the little
beast! But he dropped a hint one day when I was in the bank, and I
deliberately snared him, hoping I might be able to gain information that
would benefit you. And I have, Trev!" she added, trembling with a hope
that his hasty judgment might result to her advantage. And how near she
had come to mentioning Carson's name! If Trevison had waited for just
another second before interrupting her! Fortune had played favorably into
her hands tonight!

"For you, boy," she said, slipping close to him, sinuously, whispering,
knowing the "she" he had mentioned _must_ be Rosalind Benham. "Old friends
are best, boy. At least they can be depended upon not to betray one. Trev;
let me help you! I can, and I will! Why, I love you, Trev! And you need
me, to help you fight these people who are trying to ruin you!"

"You don't understand." Trevison's voice was cold and passionless. "It
seems I can't _make_ you understand. I'm grateful for what you have done
for me tonight--very grateful. But I can't live a lie, woman. I don't love
you!"

"But you love a woman who has delivered you into the hands of your
enemies," she moaned.

"I can't help it," he declared hoarsely. "I don't deny it. I would love
her if she sent me to the gallows, and stood there, watching me die!"

The woman bowed her head, and dropped her hands listlessly to her sides.
In this instant she was thinking almost the same words that Rosalind
Benham had murmured on her ride to Blakeley's, when she had discovered
Trevison's identity: "I wonder if Hester Keyes knows what she has
missed."

CHAPTER XXII

A MAN ERRS--AND PAYS

For a time Trevison stood on the gallery, watching the woman as she faded
into the darkness toward Manti, and then he laughed mirthlessly and went
into the house, emerging with a rifle and saddle. A few minutes later he
rode Nigger out of the corral and headed him southwestward. Shortly after
midnight he was at the door of Levins' cabin. The latter grinned with
feline humor after they held a short conference.

"That's right," he said; "you don't need any of the boys to help you pull
_that_ off--they'd mebbe go to actin' foolish an' give the whole snap
away. Besides, I'm a heap tickled to be let in on that sort of a
jamboree!" There followed an interval, during which his grin faded. "So
she peached on you, eh? She told my woman she wouldn't. That's a